Going for the Gold
by Sericea
Summary: Sei reconsiders her goals when it comes to the Chinensis family.


Sei liked a lot of things. She liked traditional Japanese food. She liked strong black tea. She really liked pretty girls. But above all, Sei liked a challenge.

Since few people understood this, it was no surprise that her behavior toward Yumi was a subject of fascination to the Lillian student body. Why did Rosa Gigantea show such interest in Rosa Chinensis en bouton's petite soeur? Was she trying to steal Yumi the way she had stolen Shimako? Did she have a particular interest in Yumi? Or was Sei just that kind of girl?

The answer was fairly simple. Sei liked a challenge and she loved the rewards that success brought. After all, for a girl like Sei, a school dedicated to turning out delicate, refined flowers needed something to spice it up slightly. Lillian was idyllic, gracious, and elegant. That combination very frequently translated to boring.

Fortunately, Sei had the Rosa Chinensis family to liven her day up.

Ignoring the curious looks of students who no doubt wondered why Rosa Gigantea had been standing outside the Rose Mansion for several minutes, she checked her watch one final time. Perfect, the meeting was scheduled to start two minutes ago, which mean that someone (most likely Yumi) would be serving tea and Youko would have just finished organizing papers.

It took Sei another minute to make it up the stairs and into the meeting room (after all, walking slowly was preferred here, especially when it helped the plan). She opened the door quietly and smiled when she saw that all the actors were in place.

"Sorry I'm late!" she said cheerfully, entering the room and letting the door close loudly behind her. She headed over to where Yumi was placing cookies and tea on a tray and grabbed a cookie. Yumi watched her warily, but still picked up the tray and headed over to the table.

Sei followed behind, waiting until Yumi was close the table. Making sure she caught Shimako's eye, Sei suddenly grabbed Yumi from behind and hugged her tightly.

As expected, the long-suffering Shimako jumped up to grab the tray before anything could spill. For her part, Yumi squeaked, stiffened, and tried to stammer out something that was most likely a protest. Grabbing her from behind meant that she had to sacrifice seeing what was undoubtedly an adorably confused and embarrassed look on Yumi's face, but the squeak helped to make up for it. Besides, this was the lowest level of achievement, so she was happy to sacrifice it for a greater reward.

Still squeezing Yumi and talking about how cute and cuddly she was, Sei glanced around the table. Eriko, predictably, was leaning forward ever so slightly with an amused smile. Rei, in contrast, was watching the scene unfold with polite, if slightly bemused, interest. Yoshino seemed to be enjoying her friend's discomfort. Shimako, of course, was paying absolutely no attention to the scene unfolding and was instead calmly serving refreshments.

Nothing unusual there. Now to see if--

"Yumi! Stop squirming, close your mouth, and don't encourage her!"

Sachiko was on her feet with her hands on the table, glaring at Sei and Yumi. Her eyes were blazing, her breathing was heavy, and her face was slightly flushed.

Sei smiled to herself. Sachiko was infinitely more composed than Yumi, except when it actually involved Yumi. Getting a reaction out of Sachiko wasn't difficult, though still rewarding. Getting such a strong reaction out of her, on the other hand, was fairly impressive. In fact, it would almost be enough, even if she didn't achieve her final goal.

She looked at the head of the table. To anyone but the other two Roses, Youko was completely unaffected. She was skimming over her notes with a patient look, clearly waiting for things to settle down so that she could start her meeting. Sei, however, could see that Youko was annoyed at the disruption. After years of knowing her, it was almost impossible to miss how tightly she gripped her papers and the hard set of her mouth.

Sei hugged Yumi a bit tighter, causing another squeal. Youko then looked up from her papers.

"It's getting late and we have a lot to cover today. If we start now, we might be able to finish before it gets dark."

At this, Yumi stopped squirming and Sachiko sat down, rebuked yet still unable to stop glaring at Sei. Sei merely smiled and released Yumi. She was unable to resist the temptation to try to feed Yumi one of the cookies, earning a barely perceptible sigh from Youko and a suggestion from Sachiko that she should feed her own soeur if she felt an uncontrollable compulsion to hand feed first years.

Sei merely smiled. A squeal from Yumi wasn't that challenging, but a sigh from Youko was like a gold medal… if teasing the Chinensis family suddenly became an Olympic sport.

After the meeting, Sei found herself walking toward the bus stop with Youko. As promised, Youko had managed to finish the meeting just before the sun started to set.

"Why do you do it?" Youko finally asked, breaking the companionable silence.

"Do what?"

This earned another sigh. "Why do you tease Yumi when you know it's only going to anger Sachiko and disrupt the meetings?"

"Yumi's cute. I like hugging her. It's not my fault she gets upset, or that she has a jealous onee-sama." She looked at Youko at the corner of her eye and smiled. "And it's certainly not my fault that the Chinensis family picks such pretty girls."

"And it never occurred to you to try hugging anyone but Yumi?"

"Not really. I mean, I could, but I doubt I'd get the fringe benefits that come with hugging Yumi during meetings."

"And upsetting Sachiko is the biggest reward you can get for hugging someone?"

"I get bigger rewards than that."

"I see. But it never occurred to you that you might get better rewards if you hugged a more willing person?"

"Not really."

They walked in silence a little longer, then Sei carefully put her arm around Youko's shoulders. The other girl didn't react at all. Sei pulled her a little closer and felt her yield.

As they continued like that to the bus stop, Youko rested her head on Sei's shoulder. It occurred to Sei that maybe she should reconsider her approach when it came to hugging members of the Red Rose Family.


End file.
